# CVE-2026-1728: Privilege Escalation via System REST APIs in Multiple WSO2 Products Permits Admin Account Takeover

> Low-privileged users can exploit insufficiently restricted tokens to access Admin REST APIs, leading to full administrative account takeover in WSO2 products.

- **Severity:** Critical 9.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 6 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-88j3-cjwq-qqvv

## What is CVE-2026-1728?

CVE-2026-1728 is a critical vulnerability in Wso2 Api Manager, published on 6 Aug 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Tokens issued to a low-privileged user are not sufficiently restricted, allowing them to be used to access product-level Admin REST APIs.

Exploitation of this vulnerability allows a low-privileged user to invoke the Admin REST APIs of WSO2 products, potentially leading to full administrative account takeover. This requires the attacker to already possess a low-privileged user account and be able to obtain a valid token for it.

Weakness: CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-1728?

It affects 4 products.


Products: Wso2 Api Control Plane, Wso2 Api Manager, Wso2 Traffic Manager, Wso2 Universal Gateway.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-1728?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-1728 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-1728 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-1728 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Wso2 Api Manager

- [CVE-2026-5430](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-5430/): WSO2 Multiple Products Path Traversal Vulnerability (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-9312](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-9312/): Improper Certificate-Based Authentication Enforcement in Multiple WSO2 Products (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2025-10611](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-10611/): Potential Broken Access Control in Multiple WSO2 Products via System REST APIs (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2025-9152](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-9152/): Improper Privilege Management in Multiple WSO2 API Manager via keymanager-operations DCR Endpoint (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2025-9804](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-9804/): Improper Access Control in Multiple WSO2 Products via Internal SOAP Admin Services and System REST APIs (critical 9.6)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-1728 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-1728 is a critical vulnerability in Wso2 Api Manager, published on 6 Aug 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-1728 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Wso2 Api Manager. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-1728/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-1728/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-1728
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-1728
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-1728

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-1728/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.